I used to live in the Mojave Desert. It is described as a "high desert." It sets on the east side of the San Gabriel Mountains, which means that any moisture the clouds are carrying is forced out on the west side as the clouds gain altitude. It's called a precipitation shadow desert.
We moved at the beginning of summer. In the "high desert," there is sort of a monsoon season. The temperature is very high (usual more than 110 degrees)and the moisture laiden clouds go overhead. The humidity rises and you have a condition that you don't expect to have in a DESERT. It's muggy and miserable. The clouds form into HUGE formations, billowing thousands of feet in the sky. They were accompanying by thunderstorms with wonderful lightening displays. Sunsets were beautiful.
When I was still a desert "newbee," I was talking to a neighbor who had lived in the desert all her life. We were watching the clouds roll and lightening lighting them up from the inside. They were dark, huge, and towered over the valley we were looking out across. I asked, "Do you think we will get any of that?" I was thinking that it looked like rain. She looked at me. She looked back at the clouds and then back to me. Her answer was brilliant. "Why do you think it is a desert out there?" I laughed and laughed.
Why do we do that some times? Ignore the obvious. Deny natural laws in favor of our own faulty logic. Bill Engval should have been there. He would have given me my "Stupid" sign.
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